Last year I had the great opportunity to speak to Marcy Little for her Sexual Trauma Healing Summit and here I share a few important pieces of that conversation that are central to my work with clients. You can watch the video below.

You see, I truly am passionate about the healing power of the body, because it is clear to me that it stores so much more information about us than the mind can consciously articulate.

“The body has its own reasons that reason cannot reason.”

Pascal, French philosopher

Modern psychology and neuroscience now have shown us enough information and evidence to sustain the argument that a mind-body approach to healing is actually a more effective way to address multiple layers of our life’s experiences that can register as intensely stressful, overwhelming or even traumatic.

The body keeps the score, and yet, so many of us are still obsessed about trying to talk our ways out of trauma, when there’s so much healing available in the path of embodiment and somatic work.

That’s because the mind can only go so far, and integrating it to the wisdom of the body is, for me, key in a sustainable transformational journey.

I’ve seen countless times that, when we allow ourselves the time and space to befriend the body, to learn to be present with sensations and emotions, we are able to gain so much more clarity about our needs, impulses, moods, behaviors and possible paths to integration. And integration is healing itself.

Here are a few topics we discussed in the video:

The importance of embodiment when healing sexual trauma.

We now know that trauma lives in the body; all sorts of traumatic experiences – sexual boundaries violation, childhood neglect, accidents, pervasive violence caused by racism, transphobia, etc. – they all imprint our bodies and nervous systems.

The fragmentation, the disconnection caused by perceived life-threatening events is stored in our nervous system, and we need to look for integration with a somatic approach, with tools that go way beyond talking and giving meaning to those experiences.

If trauma creates disconnection and fragmentation, a lost sense of power and agency, the path to healing has to do with reestablishing the inner safety that allows connection, wholeness and empowerment. Embodiment is key in this work, as it allows individuals to slowly rebuild those lost inner connections that are crucial to engaging with life from a more energized and present place.

Dissociation as a protective mechanism

So many folks with unintegrated trauma live a life of dissociation and end up shaming themselves for that.

Well, I invite you to reconsider that, and open a space to view the beauty of dissociation as a helpful tool for survival. Once you are able to acknowledge it as a piece of you that has protected you from the unbearable, you might be able to start appreciating it, loving it, and from this loving space, you can create the safety to reconnect with the body and reestablish aliveness and vitality.

Compassion as a healing superpower

I believe that all trauma healing work should be immersed in a container of deep compassion, so that we can navigate those wounds and shadows with a deep sense of love and a commitment to ease our suffering.

Sovereignty

I view trauma healing as a pathway to empowerment and agency, because traumatized people have been disconnected from their sovereign power to choose, their sense of being worthy of their ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘I don’t know’.

Rebuilding our sense of sovereignty is also a path of liberation for all beings, as once we reclaim that to ourselves, we are able to extend this to those around us.

Social justice, racial harmony, embracing diversity, tending to our beloved planet Earth… We need embodied people to care, to connect, to take action, to have the energy to build the reality we actually want to live.

At the end, healing is never only about us. It’s about community, about being self-aware while also connected to the environment and people we relate.

I invite you to listen to this important conversation and share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Also, if this approach to healing made you curious and excited, I invite you to join my waitlist. All the details about my 1:1 Healing and Coaching program “Embodied Bliss” are here.

Sending you much love,

Xoxo Marina